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Christ The Door

“I AM the Door: by Me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.”

(John 10:9)

The title of the newspaper article reads, ‘Christ can open the door to heaven.’ Many will read it and perhaps exclaim, ‘How wonderful to read such a title in a secular newspaper!’ However, any Spirit given, discerning reader, will immediately note the error! Did you? The Scriptures do not teach that Christ can open the door to heaven, but rather HE IS THE DOOR!

Is this just nit picking, or does it matter? What is the difference? The difference between Christ can open the door and Christ THE DOOR, is explained in the follow up of our LORD’S declaration…’by Me,’ indicating that HE is the one who determines who enters to be saved, versus, ‘can open the door to heaven, dependent on whether the sinner opens it or not.’

The message of the author is one of potential salvation, as opposed to Christ BEING the sinner’s salvation. ‘I AM’ is a being verb, speaking of Christ as the LIVING, BEING salvation of His sheep.

What appears to be a small insignificant error in reality is deadly because it makes Christ passive, as if He were merely an inanimate part of salvation, sitting waiting like a physical door for someone to unlock it, and not, as His statement expresses, “I AM THE DOOR.’

No one enters into salvation but by His command, and by His work accomplished for them.

The door is not open to everyone, but is shut to all except those for whom HE opens the door- that is His sheep only, whom the Father gave Him,( John 10:29).

The author proved his own error in assuring his readers that ‘God loves you, and he offers you the gift of eternal life right now…Why not reach out and accept that gift today, by inviting Christ to come into your life?’ He puts salvation in the hands of the sinner, telling the sinner to do something, rather than declare the true meaning of Christ the Door, who ‘shuts, and no man can open, or opens, and no man can shut,’ (Revelation 3:7).

Christ IS the door of His sheep. By His righteous life and sacrificial death, He didn’t just make salvation possible, but has OBTAINED eternal redemption for each one of His sheep, (Hebrews 9:12).

He is the door of His sheep by which He, their Shepherd and High Priest, brings them into the presence of His Father, and by Him, through Him, and in Him they have communion with the Father, and partake of all the blessings of His grace.

It is through Him, the DOOR, that His people have been sanctified, justified, pardoned, and adopted as sons, upon completion of His work at the cross.

The DOOR is His perfect work of redemption, and in time He brings each of His redeemed justified ones into the enjoyment of that grace procured by Him.